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I have replaced the stock suspension arm with the Pro-line ProTrac arms for the extra length.

As luck would have it my arms were the last of the items to arrive...I got tired of waiting so I bought some more from my LHS. Fortunately for me he did not have the arms by themselves but had a kit for sale.

This was a blessing in disguise as it never occurred to me at all that the camber and steering links would need to be longer for the extra length of the arms. Stock would probably work but with the rod end having less bite thread so to speak.

From the above list...the bloke at the LHS sold me all the items except for Renegade rims which I did not need.

I am using the arms because of the extra length...I am not using the stock rally body, instead I am using the PROTOform PF8 GT body as seen in post #144. I needed to make up the extra length so the wheels sit right under the body. Thanks to thedreadedend and humayray for providing the info on the mod.

Improving performance...the extra length will improve handling and cornering with the wider wheelbase.

Front foam bumper mod.

I am upgrading the stock Rally foam bumper to the XO-1 to suit my PROTOform PF8 GT body. I was thinking about making a front diffuser but for now will settle on the foam bumper.

Here is the stock Rally foam bumper for refernce.
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I replaced with the XO-1 foam bumper #6437.
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I started trimming the foam bumper...I used a knife and my dremel. I over trimmed in some areas but took my time, it didn't come out to bad.
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And here installed in place.
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Here is a close up of the trimming I have done to the XO-1 foam bumper.
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The body is a tight fit at the moment...I may look at trimming the bumper down a little further but for now this will do.

Rear body mount mod.

I did a slight mod to the rear body post...I couldn't get it low enough for my liking so I trimmed the rear body post.

I cut the length down and removed the cross bracing with my dremel as shown.
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I flipped the rear body mount upside down to lower the body post as much as practically possible.
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My build progress so far...its all falling into place now . I am not too happy with the way the body is sitting...the nose looks like it is sitting more to the right hand side by a couple mm. It will stay like this as I have already reamed the holes.

Axis R/C chassis brace foam support.

I finally have gotten around to trimming the foam that came with the Axis R/C chassis brace. The foam is there to give added support to the body.

Here is the foam before being trimmed to size.
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I cut the foam with a knife...I probably could of cut it 5mm longer for extra support, its just the right length now .
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And here in place...I have tried to place the foam support near the middle of the chassis brace.
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I also secured the caster block with a 3 x 3mm grub screw with a drop of blue loctite to hold in place.
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Mitch, I attempted to use a grub screw on my bearing carriers as you did, due to a mounting screw backing out, and noticed that it limits the movement of the A-Arm. Have you found the same results, or did you notch the screw? It appears that the bearing carrier rotates on the lower mounting screw, and by tightening a grub screw onto it, stops the rotation.

This is a method used with an e-clip and pin set. If your using the standard threaded pins that come stock, you don't want to fasten it with a grub screw. Like your describing, it'll bind up or move the screw in and out as the arm moves.

If your having some issues with the screws working their way out, you can rest easy, here's the fix for this common problem. While looking at the truck from the back.... insert screws/pins on the left side arms, from the front. The screws/pins on the right remain the same as factory, inserted from the back side of arm. I've never seen a right side pin work its way out...the right side only has issues with the torque twisting the wheel nuts loose....always something right lol.... This eliminates the ability to "back out as the arm moves. All my trucks (with threaded pins) are set up this way and it works every time. If this is an eye sore for you, you can order the solid, smooth, e-clip style pins that replace your threaded pin. In that case, you'll want to fasten the carriers with the grub for smooth, jitter/slop free movement on the carriers.

This is a method used with an e-clip and pin set. If your using the standard threaded pins that come stock, you don't want to fasten it with a grub screw. Like your describing, it'll bind up or move the screw in and out as the arm moves.

If your having some issues with the screws working their way out, you can rest easy, here's the fix for this common problem. While looking at the truck from the back.... insert screws/pins on the left side arms, from the front. The screws/pins on the right remain the same as factory, inserted from the back side of arm. I've never seen a right side pin work its way out...the right side only has issues with the torque twisting the wheel nuts loose....always something right lol.... This eliminates the ability to "back out as the arm moves. All my trucks (with threaded pins) are set up this way and it works every time. If this is an eye sore for you, you can order the solid, smooth, e-clip style pins that replace your threaded pin. In that case, you'll want to fasten the carriers with the grub for smooth, jitter/slop free movement on the carriers.

You know, now that I think about it, you're right! On all of my trucks, only the left pin has come loose. Sometimes in front too! Any fix for that?
Thanks!
AB

I use a drop of ca glue on the threads of stubborn screws lol. Most of the time, its the cambers on the sl4sh tower side, or the shock mount screw up top of the tower. Tekno has a nice set of shock bolts for the tower if you want a permanent fix..... as for the front right suspension pin.....dab of ca, be careful and apply to the thread lightly, making sure it doesn't run past the thread. Don't want any extra binding. My rce arms come with a smooth pin system held in place by 2 grubs so this is a thing of the past for me. But, I still need a dab of ca for my sugar truck (sl4sh mt).

I also secured the caster block with a 3 x 3mm grub screw with a drop of blue loctite to hold in place.
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Mitch, I attempted to use a grub screw on my bearing carriers as you did, due to a mounting screw backing out, and noticed that it limits the movement of the A-Arm. Have you found the same results, or did you notch the screw? It appears that the bearing carrier rotates on the lower mounting screw, and by tightening a grub screw onto it, stops the rotation.

AB

I haven't tested my truck on the road yet mate...will hopefully have my rig up and running by the weekend or next week.

My thinking behind the grub screw was to try and stop any horizontal movement that may occur on the caster block because the threaded pin screws in from the front of the arm.

I thought about notching the threaded screw but I didn't. I should of mentioned this before but I never fastened the grub screw very tight on the threaded pin, just enough to have some bite. I was aware that it would bind if over tightened and cause suspension travel problems. The loctite was to hold the grub screw in place and stop backing out...in theory I have added a small amount of resistance onto the threaded pin...IDK how well it will work; we use the same theory here where I work when building NH3 compressor packages.

If I push my Rally to the ground my suspension acts as normal with no binding whatsoever and springs right up to resting position. I hope that is of some help to you mate .

Mitch, thanks for the reply! I got a very good explanation from thedreadedend about why they back out. I will reverse the left screw to prevent it. Since yours go in from the front, maybe you will have problems with the right one? Hope not.
Enjoy your build, it looks to be a good one!

No worries mate...I haven't heard of them coming undone until now. Having them screw in from the back of the rear arm makes sense to me that the screw pin would work itself loose...since all the force of the rear wheels push out under constant acceleration, the forces will act on the back of the rear arm where they are screwed in from.

Having them screw in from the front has very little force on the front of the rear arm under constant acceleration and would be affected by reversing under constant acceleration and braking.

If you look at the XO-1's rear exploded view, you will see they screw in from the front of the rear arm as I have done.

XO-1 rear exploded view (cropped)
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Time will tell after some testing if they will work themselves loose or not...I may have to re-look this in time if the screw pin works itself loose. I will report my feedback after a good few battery packs have run through the Rally.

Nerf bars mod.

I have been thinking about this for a long time and was stumped at what to do as for nerf bars to support the side body...this is what I came up with.

I came across these while on my lunch break some time back, I thought they would come in handy one day...well that day finally came. This packaging foam is going to be my nerf bars.
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Here in place so I could get an idea if it would work or not.
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I was stoked with the result...a perfect fit and offers good support down the side of the body . A close up...As you can see its a snug fit.
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I wrapped each foam bumper support a few times with gorilla tape...the foam is fairly dense so it will add support and hopefully help in deflecting some wind at high speeds.
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Its looking pretty good and solid attached to the nerf bars.
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A close up of the nerf bar in place.
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As you can see in this view its giving the body a fair bit of support.
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Excellent creativity! Side impact air bags lol. At this rate, you'll need a Volvo body to properly represent the safety value of your build
You have consistently approached this build from a fresh angle, nice work. Many useful bits of info and lots of full descriptions of product, operating and setup instructions. You've gone the extra mile for sure. Its a pleaser to click on this thread and see what's new.

Excellent creativity! Side impact air bags lol. At this rate, you'll need a Volvo body to properly represent the safety value of your build
You have consistently approached this build from a fresh angle, nice work. Many useful bits of info and lots of full descriptions of product, operating and setup instructions. You've gone the extra mile for sure. Its a pleaser to click on this thread and see what's new.

Originally Posted by DiggerPede

Nice work bro. I have to agree with dread I totally dig the side impact air bags.

Thanks guys...I've enjoyed my build progress so far, I've hit a few hiccups that I need to iron out. Most of all, I have really enjoyed writing this thread .

Extended battery hold down.

I've ended up getting the extended battery hold down for my Rally...because I am running a single 4s 45C 5000mah Lipo battery I had to get the extended hold down.

This is it here: Traxxas Battery Hold-Downs Tall 1/10 Rally VXL #7426X
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Here is a comparison of the stock vs the extended battery hold down.
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I'm not sure what you call this...Battery Hold Down or Battery Retaining Clip?...The battery retaining clip is reversible to accommodate different battery heights. This is the reverse side from the pic above. I now have the option for 20mm, 23mm, 25mm and 29mm.

Wheels.

did you recieved your xo-1 wheels/tires? those tires are alot bigger (diameter) than the one i'm running and your probably going to cut the wheel well on your body even bigger than usual.

Well mate, I thought I had it all figured out until you mentioned this to me. You are right, there is not much travel when you push the body down...the wheels touch the body almost immediately.

I have had to re look at this . I thought when I bought the XO-1 wheels that they were the same diameter as yours. Well it just goes to show that I am always learning something new.

Most 1/8 buggy tyres are 110mm in diameter as is the XO-1. When I looked at Suprasales wheels on eBay they are classed as 1/8 Buggy wheels so I naturally assumed they were 110mm in diameter until Humayray pointed out to me that they are 96mm in Diameter.

It didn't justify me to buy from Suprasales as his wheels were $23 for a set and postage to Australia $40.

I was back to google with countless hours of searching...I felt stupid when I came across this...I wasn't aware that tyres also have a 1/8 GT class which is between 96mm to 102mm in diameter.

This is the direction I have now progressed my Rally build.

Here are the XO-1 wheels I bought for my build...they are the XO-1 #6479 front wheels all round.
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After my research I settled on these and got myself a set of Sweep Racing 55E #SWPS40155EK6P.

I have gone for the 55 compound tyre as living in Brisbane it is hot just about all year round.
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Here is comparison of the XO-1 (110mm diameter) vs the Sweep Racing GT wheels (102mm diameter). It is quiet a significant difference when compared to each other.
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Just a comparison of how it looks on my Rally.
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Description
Our hardest compound GT tire for hot and sticky tracks.

Note for Electric powered GT racers:
Our GT tires is designed for Nitro Powered GTs in mind, even thought some racers had great success with our tires on their "Insane Speed" runs with 2S-6S Lipo/Brusheless Motor equipped machines but we do not recommend our tires for that kind of racing or nor warranty or guarantees of any kinds for that matters. our tires are designed for "Circuit Racing" where Lap times are most important.

Our Rubber selection
GT: Made out of Natural virgin rubber, great for VHT, Sugar coated tracks.(one color dot)
EXP: Made out of Synthetic rubber, most traction, longer lasting.(two color dots)

Slick VS Treaded
Slick: Made for commercial track or even smooth surface.
Treaded: Made for uneven surface such as parking lots.

Sway Bar Kit.

I was planning on running the Hot Racing sway bar kit on my Rally. I really recommend the sway bar kit as this helps reduce body roll and improved handling; it also helps stiffen up chassis flex too.

I have had great success with the sway bar kits on my eRevo and eSlayer Pro 4x4 and would not run these trucks again without one installed. It is unbelievable the difference it makes to the performance of your truck.

Here is the Hot Racing sway bar kit for the Rally with complete 3 choice of sway bars.Front & Rear Sway Bar 4wd Slash Rally #SLF311
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As you can see this sway bar kit comes with a choice of three sway bars...Soft, medium and stiff.
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I have to admit, I am a little disappointed with the Hot Racing sway bar kit...when I came to install this is what I noticed...the ball head screw has a manufacturing flaw; the hex has not been machined into the ball head. I have opened a dispute in the paypal resolution centre at the moment trying to resolve this.

I am not after a refund but a resolution...I would like the correctly manufactured ball head screw to be sent out to me .

This is what I am talking about...it seems to have missed the last stage of manufacture. As is at the moment there is no way to fasten the ball head to the arm without using a pliers or doing a mod to the ball head screw.
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I tried to source a ball head screw here in Australia...no such luck at all. I even tried to use the ball head screw from my spare eRevo sway bars, but they were a loose fit and looked as if the rod end would pop off the ball with ease.

In my haste I ordered another Hot Racing sway bar kit from the same place, Bizarre Hobbies off eBay just for the ball head screw...not the same part # kit as above but this one.

Front & Rear Sway Bar Kit #SLF311E
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Well needless to say, I was extremely disappointed, the ball head screw is exactly the same as the pic above...there must be a batch of these sway bar kits out there with this manufacturing flaw.

I now have 2 sway bar kits with manufacturing flawed ball head screws...NICE!

I will wait for the resolution to go through its process before I come to installing the sway bar kit...I think what I will end up doing is hack saw a small cross slot in the top of the ball head so I can install with a phillips screw driver.

This has slowed my build somewhat as I want my Rally to be full assembled the way I had planned before I test run it and fine tune my settings .

Description

Hot Racing brand Front and Rear Sway Bar Set for use on the
for use on the Traxxas 4x4 Slash, LCG 4x4 Slash and 1/10 Rally Vehicles.

FEATURES:

Adjustable spring steel sway bar wire

A set of three sway bars for a wider range of adjustment to suit the current track condition

Suspension settings revisted.

Right, I have to go through a few things I have changed over the long weekend. Swapping over to the new smaller diameter GT wheels has affected a few settings...it has forced me to re look my original planned set up.

Firstly, my suspension was to soft, the smaller diameter wheels have left me with minimal travel before the chassis bottom outs. It is even worse with the body on as I have about 1/4" to 1/2" travel before the body touches the floor.

Here is a comparison from what it was to how it sits now.

Before
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=====After...It's hard to tell in the pic but the chassis has dropped a fair bit.
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Because of this I ended up changing over the shock oil back to 50W front and rear..
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In the front shock I had originally used a VDK piston #3...I was trying to stiffen up the front over the rear and trying to control this with the VDK kit. With the suspension the way it is now I had to re look this.

I am now using VDK piston #1 in the front...I basically now have VDK piston #1 in the front and rear shock.
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I have changed over from the Green striped springs on the front shocks to the blue striped springs...the rear shock is still using the green striped springs from my original planned set up. Here is a pic of the front spring rates again for reference.
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This is how I had the rear caster block set up before...I was using top mounting hole for roll centre.
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=====After...I have now changed this as I didn't like the way it was. I am using bottom mounting hole as shown now.
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I am quite pleased with the way my build has progressed and is looking SWEET now...I can't wait to give this beast her maiden voyage test drive .

Hot Racing Sway Bar Kit installation.

I didn't want to wait for this dispute I had opened in the paypal resolution centre..it is slowing down the progress of my build so I have gone ahead and installed as is.

I ended up using a pliers to fasten the ball head screw to the arm. In the pic you can see there is no hex machined into the head of the ball screw.

Front
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I never used the supplied screws and spacers but instead used the Flat-Head Screws 3x6mm TRA3932
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I am using the chrome sway bar up front, chrome 2mm (Hard)...you can see the Flat-Head Screws I used to secure the sway bar.
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I set the turnbuckle 5mm from the end of the sway bar.
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=====Rear.....Again, I used a pliers to fasten the ball head screw to the arm.
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I am using the blue sway bar on the rear, blue 1.8mm (Med)...again you can see the Flat-Head Screws I used to secure the sway bar.
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I set the turnbuckle flush with the end of the sway bar.
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I have set up my sway bars to reduce oversteer...I'll need to test and see how this goes or if any further fine tuning is needed.

looking good mate, i just have this idea about side body support, now i know you've seen my side body mount more towards the rear only and i'm thinking of redoing mine by using a rear rally body mount mounted at the nerf bar, what you think?

looking good mate, i just have this idea about side body support, now i know you've seen my side body mount more towards the rear only and i'm thinking of redoing mine by using a rear rally body mount mounted at the nerf bar, what you think?

Body Prep work.

Here's what I have done to prep my body for painting.

First off, I drew some lines on the outside shell with a sharpie to get an idea for painting...it doesn't have to be accurate or straight lines, its better to have some markings to work towards than none at all in my experience.

This is how I have marked my body for its paint job .
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This is the first time I have used liquid mask...I tried Parma.
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The liquid mask is fairly easy to use and prep...I used 5 layers. I took my time prepping this body as you can see, using masking tape to mask off the other area.
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Tamiya Paints.

I use Tamiya paints on all my bodies as its very easy to source here in Australia. Make sure you use the paints that are marked PS and not TS or your beautiful paint job will flake off in no time from your body.

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I also secured the caster block with a 3 x 3mm grub screw with a drop of blue loctite to hold in place.
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I don't know if this was addressed already, but if you use that grub screw with a screw in hinge pin, won't the hinge pin bind or loosen, depending on what angle you had the carrier when you tightened it down?
The grub screw is used when you use a hinge pin that uses E-Clips on both ends, keeps the pin from sliding out if you loose one or both e-clips.

I don't know if this was addressed already, but if you use that grub screw with a screw in hinge pin, won't the hinge pin bind or loosen, depending on what angle you had the carrier when you tightened it down?
The grub screw is used when you use a hinge pin that uses E-Clips on both ends, keeps the pin from sliding out if you loose one or both e-clips.

This has already been discussed in this thread...I'm aware of how it must be used but since this is a custom build I chose to use the grub screw regardless. Post #169 to #175...thanks for the info!

Painted PF8-GT Body.

My body came out quite well...there were a few spots where the paint over ran but overall this is my best spray job so far.

I tried something new this time, I tried to decal the outside of the body with a sharpie to enhance the colour effect. I didn't really like it and didn't come out as well as I hoped.

Here is a peak of the what it looked like on the body.
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The sharpie outlining was fairly difficult to remove...it was also a tedious task. I managed to get about 99.9% of it off. I used eucalyptus oil to remove the lines I drew on the body.
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The other problem I came across is that I had cut the cut the body to suit the XO-1 wheels, the wheel wells are a little to big for my liking now for the GT wheels.
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The colour scheme I choose came out really well...I'm liking the colour more and more every time I look at my Rally.
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Underside Body Prep.

Before I decal my bodies I like to prep the underside for use...this is not necessary but its something I have been doing for a long time.

Before being prepped, as you can see I have backed with white.
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I like to run a strip of gorilla tape on the underside where the body scuffs. As you can see I ran a strip of gorilla tape down each side of the body, under each wheel well and on the nose for the foam bumper.
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The other thing I was concerned about was the lip that runs around the nose of the body...its to flimsy for my liking so I wanted to stiffen it up (add some rigidity to the nose).

What I did was I cut one of these work safe signs I found lying around the workshop.
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I profiled the shape of the nose and cut with a stanley knife as seen below.
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As you can see its pretty flexible stuff...easy and light weight to work with.
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I used shoo goo to hold in place...IDK how well it work, I thought it was worth a shot.
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G'day mate...these shock rebuild pics are from my eRevo thread. I hope this helps and what you were after.

I stripped the shocks down to give a good clean, emptied old shock oil out and replaced with a new heavier shock oil (60W).
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Because these are my eRevo shocks I used a VDK piston #2...as you can see the valve is on top because this truck is a basher, I am controlling compression.

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I then filled the shock with 60W shock oil. I cycled the piston up an down a few times to let any trapped air bubbles escape.

Here you can see I fill the shocks almost to the top before putting the bladder back in place and the rest of the shock back together.
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It will be normal for the shocks to leak for a couple uses after being rebuilt as excess shock oil will leak from the bleed hole. I generally give a wipe down and blow off with compressed air.

Body Clip Mod.

I had to mod my body clips to suit the PROTOform PF8-GT body as it was a tight fit getting the body clips in because of the bodies profile.

I bent the ends up for a better fit with a pliers for both front and rear.
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Front body clips.
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Rear body clips.
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Now that I am happy with the front body clip mod I rounded the sharp edge so as not to scratch my body or my decal when the clip is inserted.
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Decaled Rally Body.

Well guys, here it is...the finished result of my build progress. The pic doesn't do the paintwork any justice.
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This is probably my best spray and decal job I have done so far...Enjoy!